Walking into the Hastings High School, I was immediately greeted by hordes of folks red, white, and blue, Angie Craig t-shirts. After accepting stickers from various volunteers, I finally made it to the check in table where I was checked in by none other than former Cannon Falls English teacher, Roz Hjermstad. She gave me a name tag and a stack of papers, on top of which was the schedule. Once I had all the information I needed, I proceeded into the gymnasium to participate in my first ever DFL county caucus.  

The convention began with two speakers, Angie Craig, and Jeff Erdmann, both of whom are running for Congress. Each speaker got two minutes to tell the group why they’re running and why they believe they are qualified to replace Jason Lewis. The entire caucus seemed bound and determined to get more Democrats into office this election season, and it seemed as though Angie Craig was a crowd favorite.

After listening to these speakers, we turned in our party platform ballots and broke off for lunch. Once everyone was seated again, it was time for the walking subcaucus. A plethora of people flooded down to the floor with homemade signs saying everything from, “Education and Angie Craig,” to “We support DACA!” Each of these people had one goal, create their own subcaucus with enough people to send a delegate to the state convention. Each person was awarded one minute to speak about their cause, but one really stuck out to me. Besides me and my liberal partner in crime, Rosemary Reardon, there was one other young person and she was starting a subcaucus dedicated to education and Angie Craig. Both Rose and I decided to join her in her endeavor to get to the state convention.

After a chaotic period of time had passed, the walking sub caucus was over and our little group gained enough people to send one delegate and one alternate to the state convention. After some debate, we landed one young person, and one older person. As everyone began to return to their seats, I took another look around. This time, it stuck out to me how much younger I was than everyone else in the room. This seemed wrong to me as I have heard most of my classmates express their political preferences, but it seems young people aren’t willing to get out there and make it happen.

In May I will turn 18 which means in November I will be able to vote, and most if not all of my peers will be able to vote with me. It doesn’t matter anymore what party we belong to; the fact of the matter is that the young people are going to inherit this country and the government along with it. We have the power to change the world, but we have to be willing to get out there and make our voices heard. Minnesotans have the ability to register to vote online so get off Netflix for a few minutes and do it at: https://mnvotes.sos.state.mn.us/VoterRegistration/VoterRegistrationMain.aspx